![\"\"](\"https:\/\/storage.briwebapp.net\/2020\/08\/b1607ba2-ild.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI might be wearing a “Fierce. Focused. Fearless” workout top – but I sure didn’t feel any of those things this weekend.<\/p>\n
I had the scare of my life on Sunday afternoon. I’m not even being dramatic.<\/p>\n
Walking the trails in Canatara Park.\u00a0 Feeling like I was on an incredible soul-searching adventure, just like Reese Witherspoon in “Wild”.<\/p>\n
Without the backpack and extreme measures. (smile)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was out of the house.\u00a0 I was taking time for ME, just like we’re told to do.\u00a0 The weather was perfect.\u00a0 The trails are never disappointing.<\/p>\n
This time?\u00a0 I ran away, shaking, and afraid for my life.\u00a0 \u00a0(This might be a slight exaggeration for dramatic effect).<\/p>\n
A beautiful day for a walk on the trails.\u00a0 Getting my Fitbit steps in so I can at least look like I TRIED in the latest challenge I was invited to.<\/p>\n
It started out really nice.\u00a0 Lots of others out as well.\u00a0 A few smiles, waves and hellos between strangers.\u00a0\u00a0![\"\"](\"https:\/\/storage.briwebapp.net\/2020\/08\/eb62993c-bird.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I saw a crane.\u00a0 Or maybe it was a heron.\u00a0 I’m not that good with birds.\u00a0 It was beautiful and majestic, standing at the edge of the water.\u00a0\u00a0Lots of dragonflies.\u00a0 A chipmunk, and so many butterflies.<\/p>\n
I made my way through the park and then decided I was still feeling good and wanted to keep going.\u00a0 So I ventured out through the grassy area trails, in behind the bike ramps.\u00a0 I didn’t even have my phone out for pictures.\u00a0 I was just soaking it all in, enjoying the day.<\/p>\n
Then IT<\/em><\/strong> happened.<\/p>\n Something I have NEVER EVER EVER <\/em>experienced before in my life and something I hope I never have to experience again.<\/p>\n I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.\u00a0 I had just climbed one of the hills.\u00a0 Feeling so accomplished.\u00a0 Usually I’m with my 17-year-old and she’s encouraging me and offering help if her “old mother” needs it. (smile).<\/p>\n I turned, looking for someone else walking or biking.\u00a0 Nope.<\/p>\n It wasn’t a person.\u00a0 It happened so fast – but what I’m pretty sure was a COYOTOE – running through the grass to my left.<\/p>\n And it sure wasn’t like any cute cartoon Coyote we might have grown up watching. I was FROZEN in fear.\u00a0 I had never ever encountered anything like that in all the times I’d walked the trails.\u00a0 Maybe it’s because I was alone?\u00a0 And it was quiet?<\/p>\n I tried to think “What do I do?”\u00a0 I looked around for a place to run to.\u00a0 I couldn’t SEE anything.\u00a0 That was the problem.\u00a0 I saw the direction the coyote ran in, but it disappeared in the tall grass.\u00a0 If I kept walking, would he come in that direction?\u00a0 I sure didn’t want to walk towards him.\u00a0 I thought about calling my husband then, but was afraid of making noise.<\/p>\n It’s one of those m What does one do when they encounter a coyote?<\/p>\n I saw a clear path and ran to it.\u00a0 Then stopped – thinking, probably not smart to run – even though I wanted to get the heck out of there as fast as I could.<\/p>\n I called my husband as soon as I got out of the trails.<\/p>\n I couldn’t stop shaking for the longest time as I fought my way back to where I had parked my car.<\/p>\n So I guess my days of “being one with nature” are behind me – at least for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I might be wearing a “Fierce. Focused. Fearless” workout top – but I sure didn’t feel any of those things this weekend. I had the scare of my life on Sunday afternoon. I’m not even being dramatic. Walking the trails in Canatara Park.\u00a0 Feeling like I was on an incredible soul-searching adventure, just like Reese","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":10699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_img_display":"Yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4471,2728,4469,4475,442,4474,4472,4303,4473,4470],"class_list":["post-10697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afternoons","tag-adventure","tag-canatara-park","tag-coyotes","tag-experienc","tag-sarnia","tag-scary","tag-staycations","tag-trails","tag-wild","tag-wild-life"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 18:52:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"react_link":"https:\/\/foxfm.com\/blogs\/afternoons\/2020\/08\/the-view-from-here-i-just-had-the-scare-of-my-life\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10707,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697\/revisions\/10707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/storage.briwebapp.net\/2020\/08\/4438c432-canstockphoto2550438.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/storage.briwebapp.net\/2020\/08\/7161cb8f-face.jpg\")
oments in time you just never forget.\u00a0 My heart was racing.<\/p>\n